Heart Failure Drug Reduces Mortality at Phase III

Novartis’ recombinant human relaxin-2 drug candidate RLX030 (serelaxin) reduced all-cause mortality in a placebo-controlled Phase III study involving 1,161 patients with heart failure, and met one of its two dyspnea reduction primary endpoints. The Relax-AHF trial used two different scales to measure reductions in dyspnea, and one of these was met, but the other didn’t reach statistical significance.

The study involved administering RLX030 to patients on admission to hospital in the form of an intravenous infusion for up to 48 hours, in addition to standard of care therapy involving loop diuretics. Novartis says it plans to discuss the trial results with regulatory authorities worldwide, and will present the data at the American Heart Association congress in Los Angeles next month.